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Thursday, June 28, 2018

June 2018

Happy Summer UCFSD. Although the school year has come to an end the work of the Board and the Administration continues. Below are this month's highlights.

2018-2019 Budget Approved

New High School Lunch Schedule Approved (for 2019-2020)

New Pupil Services Role Approved

New UHS Dean of Students Role Approved

Outdoor Facilities Master Plan Update

Updates to Student Code of Conduct (policy 218)

2018-2019 Budget Approved

The final budget and levying of taxes was approved this month. The spending plan reflects a small year over year growth and the overall annual tax increase was the lowest in years. The difficulty the Board grappled with was the uneven annual tax increase between Delaware County and Chester County residents. The Board was unable to find viable alternatives available to them - they are unable to change the state algorithm. A chart tracking rate increase by year shows that the discrepancies between the counties tend to even out over time. The Board approved the plan and several members expressed support for lobbying state representatives to amend the mandated algorithms.

New High School Lunch Schedule Approved (for 2019-2020)

The Board approved the implementation of one common hour-long lunch for the high school. This idea first came up during the school start time initiative and the Board followed up by prioritizing an evaluation of the concept this year. Tim Hoffman led the evaluation process with a committee of stakeholders. The committee reviewed research, the experiences of other schools and the sentiments of district stakeholders. The approved plan is to be implement for the 2019-2020 school year - the 2018-2019 school year will be used to develop procedures, schedules and updates to Powerschool.

New Pupil Services Role Approved

Leah Reider’s (Director of Special Education) role has been reclassified to now direct and provide continuous supervision of the complete operations of special education (including gifted); psychological services K-12; student assistance programs and services K-12; student nursing and health services; guidance and counseling services K-12; student records; and nonpublic students within UCFSD.

Outdoor Facilities Master Plan Update

The Board hired a consulting company (K&W Engineers - $9,500) in November to evaluate ways to optimize the UHS, Patton and UES campuses. The purpose of the study was to support the 2017-2018 Board goal to “Update the ten-year plan considering updated enrollment projections and long-term athletic facility needs and improvements”

The preliminary report outlines ways the campuses could be optimized to improve the program and increase safety. The Board and members of the public weighed in with questions and suggestions. The Board asked K&W to refine the presentation with additional information, options and high level costs. The Board also agreed to pay K&W an additional $5,900 to cover costs beyond the original scope of work.

The next step is for K&W to present their findings next year. The Board will then use that information to inform an updated Ten Year Plan.

Updates to Student Code of Conduct (policy 218)

The Board has spent considerable time this year deliberating this policy. It has been a topic covered in these monthly updates for the past several months. The Board has directed the administration to assemble a steering committee and “blue ribbon” at large committee of stakeholders to work over the summer to provide a recommendation to the Board early next year.

We hope you find these recaps useful. We encourage you to stay informed about the workings of your School Board. Our online resources in BoardDocs allow you to virtually access the Boardroom through videos and electronic documents. Your communications team is here to help - we’re always happy to hear from you.